IBM Notes Browser Plug-in released as part of IBM Notes 9 release
is a great product which allows you to open any existing Notes/Domino
Applications inside a browser. If you have created new applications
using XPages or converted your old ones using XPages, they can be opened
in browser even without this plug-in. The Notes Browser Plug-in is for
older apps which you do not want to or cannot convert to XPages.

As can be seen from the above picture, a combination IBM Notes Browser Plug-in & IBM iNotes together provides the same functionality in a browser as you would expect from an installed Notes Client. Your Mail access will be via iNotes and the applications can be accessed via the Browser Plug-in, all within the context of the same Browser. And you will have support for all the features you are used to in the Notes Client - mainly, Local Replica, Replication Page, Workspace.

Key functionality here is the tighter integration between the Notes applications running inside the browser & IBM iNotes. I will try to summarize the integration capability added in the IBM Notes 9 release.

As we talk about Mail & App integration (iNotes & Browser Plug-in), following are the integration points supported:

Access to applications when in IBM iNotes:

We have provided a button on iNotes so you can launch to the welcome page of the IBM Notes Browser Plug-in: ->

If you have a Document Link/View link or DB Link in an Email you open up, as long as the link has a URL of "notes://" (look for the link url on the status bar), this will then launch the Notes Browser Plug-in and open the content inside the same browser (a new tab). Please make sure the Domino server has a setting to format the link as Notes:// link instead (or in addition to) http://

Mail integration in IBM Notes Browser Plug-in

IBM Notes Browser Plug-in does not allow you to open mailfile or mail applications in the plug-in.

Trying to open your mailfile via the workspace, or mail bookmark will get re-directed to your mailfile in iNotes. So it's seamless for the user to open his/her iNotes mail from the Plug-in.

Any mail operation you do in your application, such as "Action->Forward", will create a new memo in iNotes and include your document in the BODY of the email.

Any back-end mail operation done in your application will work as is.

We do not expect any issues when using your applications and any mail based workflow you might have.

There is also an icon on the Notes Browser Plug-in menubar to launch iNotes similar to the above icon on iNotes launch bar.

So all you need to do is to upgrade to IBM iNotes 9 to get the new icon to launch the IBM Notes Browser Plug-in, and install the Notes Browser Plug-in 9 on your desktop, and use these together to get your work done. For this release, we only support Windows & Citrix OS and IE/Firefox browsers. But hopefully that will cover a major sets of users who can try this new functionality in the product. Give us your feedback on your experience.

Notes Browser Plug-in is a product for accessing Notes/Domino based applications inside your browser, and not require any modification to your applications. For accessing Mail inside a browser, we recommend IBM iNotes (Previously known as Domino Web Access - DWA). We have modified Notes Browser Plug-in to form a mailfile URL in http when the user tries to double-click on the mailfile icon on the workspace or the bookmarks. For example, if my mailfile was on a server xyz/ibm, we find out it's http name (somethinglike xyz.ibm.com) and then append the pathname to the mailfile to it and fire it up in the browser. So it could come up as:

https://xyz.ibm.com\mail\abc.nsf

Notice that we always try to use https. But if your Domino Server's URL is 'http' only, where you want the URL launch your mailfile to be :

Recently I had received some queries from 1 or 2 customers about training videos for Notes Client. I was actually thinking of creating some simple videos and let people know how they can get started in IBM Notes, but thanks to my colleague, Jayant Koppikar (owe you one), who pointed me to a pool of existing videos which are available for anyone to view. This is a great thing, and for me it was a hidden jewel. Not sure if you all know about it. but here they are:

Check them out. You can find small 1-minute videos all the way upto 5-6 minute ones. You can know how to get started with Notes, all the way to how to use a Delegated Mail file, how to effectively search, and more.

One of my favorite is this video about all the cool features in Notes 8.5.3. This clearly explains what those are, how you can use them, and where you need to go to enable them. Simple 5-minute video for you to get effective in Notes 8.5.3.

I am a die-hard Notes Client user, having worked on the client for the past 17 years. Not much of an iNotes user until the latest 9.0 Social Edition release (maybe I was forced to start using iNotes because of the work I had to do for the Notes Browser Plug-in). But as we get closer to the Public Beta for the IBM Notes 9.0 Social Edition release (& iNotes & Notes Browser Plug-in), one thing that struck me is the ease of switching between the 2 products (Notes Client & iNotes). The development and the UX team has put in tremendous efforts in ensuring that the user interface between these 2 products is almost identical, and easy to use.

Both the products support the same "Social Edition" theme so overall color scheme is identical.

Both the products have the same banner at the top to allow for easy launch of common applications (mail, calendar, workspace, homepage etc)

Here's a quick screenshot just to get you excited about the new BETA coming out very shortly.

You will see the same look & feel if you use iNotes or the Notes Client.

There are lot of cool things coming in the 9.0 Beta, for which I will post updates in the next few days.

Recently we have started to look at the road-blocks customers find when moving to web based interface for their Mail. iNotes has come a long way, and you will find that in the 8.5.3 release, iNotes is way superior to most of the web based email products. And you have Domino as the back-end, which is the most secure and scalable messaging server you can have. I like the speed when using iNotes. I have used all the 3 different flavors of iNotes (Full, Lite, and ultra-lite) and find them useful in different situations. Just the other day, I wanted to check my email from my mobile (yes, I could install Traveler, but I did not). So I just tried the iNotes Ultra-lite, and was amazed how quickly the inbox showed on my mobile and how easy was it navigate around my mail and read what I needed to read. Truly amazing & fast (no 3G for me yet).

So for customers that do not require a full-blown Notes Client for their email, iNotes is great product. It is also something that can be used as an alternate method for checking mail, when you are away or at another office and do not have your laptop with the Notes Client on it.

I am sure that most of the customers are investigating moving their Notes/Domino environment to access via a browser. Are you thinking the same? Have you tried the latest iNotes & Lotus Traveler, and does that meet your requirements? What stops you from going ahead with this strategy?